Process of producing printing surfaces of wood and products thereof



June 18, 1929. SNYDER 1,717,945

PROCESS OF PRODUCING PRINTING SURFACES OF WOOD AND PRODUCTS THEREOF Filed Nov. 29, 1927 Patented June 18, 1929.

UNITED STATES 1,717,945 PATENT OFFIC A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

JACOB K. SNYDER, OF GREENPOIN'I', NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO A. C. HORN COMPANY,

PROCESS OF PRODUCING PRINTING SURFACES 0F WOOD AND PRODUCTS THEREOF.

Application filed November 29, 1927. Serial No. 236,595.

My invention relates particularly to a process For reproducing by printing the grain of woods of various kinds, and the product'thereof. It is applicable especially, however, to the treatment of wood in such a manner as not to necessarily require a subsequent hardening of the same.

The subject matter of the present application is an improvement over the invention as set forth in my application for Letters Patent upon process of producing printing surfaces and product thereof, executed on the 17th day of November, 1927, Serial No. 236,596, filed A Nov. 29, 1927.

The object of my invention is to provide a process, and product thereof, for obtaining printing surfaces by the reproduction of the grain of various kinds of woods, whereby the grain of the wood may be applied to articles of any desired kind, not only at a much smaller cost, but with a much more exact reproduction of the actual grain of the wood than has been possible in previous processes, the present invention having application especially to a process in which a separate hardening treatment is not required. The commercially used methods previously provided for this purpose involved the making of a negative by the use of a plastic or molten material or electroplating or photography. Some of said processes required the etching of metal plates as the negatives and the making of a positive from the negative. Furthermore, in the previous metal etching process it has been found that the depressions and valleys caused by the etching are not sufficiently deep to hold enough ink for faithfully reproducing the grain in exact detail when the ink is transferred to a roller and from the roller to the object to receive the grain. Also, the metal etching process is not adapted for application to curved surfaces, such as moldings. In all said previous processes there has been a loss of value and detail so as to prevent obtaining an exact replica of the original, and, furthermore, required very expensive equipment, materials and workmanship. The procedure in such previous processes always has been to draw, engrave, photograph, or mold a fac-simile on a surface, to be trans ferred to stone, gelatine, metal or some other medium from which copies are to be printed or otherwise reproduced.

This invention comprises a method of using the grained wood itself as the negative so as to exactly reproduce the contours of wood surfaces 1n each reproduction, thus copying the same with a fidelity and accuracy never attained before. The equipment used in my process is inexpensive, highly skilled labor is not requlred, depressions or valleys are secured of sufficient depth for the roller to pick up from the surface suflicient ink to obtain therefrom an exact reproduction of the grain, and the process may be readily applied to curved surfaces. In'my process it is not necessary to apply any separate hardening step. lso,1n connection with my process it is found that not only is sufficient ink picked up from the surface, but, due to the somewhat yielding character of the latter, enough ink is taken up by the roller to actually produce a raised printing surface when desired in the final printed product.

In general, my invention involves the production of a negative of the grain on a wooden plate or molding of wood, which may be followed by deepening the valleys and depressions in the grain thereof so that the minutest detail of the same will be faithfully reproduced.

My invention is capable of being carried out in many different ways, but by way of illustration I shall describe only certain Ways of carrying out the same hereinafter.

By way of illustration I have shown certain portions of my invention in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of a veneered panel showing the same before being subjected to my process;

Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the same before treatment;

Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the same shown after the etching and in process of having a portion of the grain brushed out;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the resultant panel after the treatment of brushin out and filling with ink has been completed;

Fig. 5 is a cross-section of the same after having had the ink introduced; and

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the inked panel showing a portion of the ink removed there from by a transverse roller.

My process may be applied to the reproduction of the grain of any desired kind of wood, but it has application especially to hard woods, such, for example, as mahogany, walnut, oak, etc., although my invention is particularly useful in connection with the treatmeat of walnut. Preferably a veneer 1 is made of one of these woods of sufficient thickuess. as, for instance. one inch, on a backing of any other desired kind of Wood, such, for instance as cross sectioned pine 2, in order to obtain a wooden panel or molding in this manner that will not warp or distort in the course of the treatment. The veneer may be made from quarter-sawed sections or any other desirable cuts from the log and then seasoned. The panel or molding is placed in a suitable form and is provided with a smooth level surface by abrasion or smoothing down with any desired tools. The surface is then treated with a material which will partially remove or soften or change parts of the Wood grain so as to enable the latter to be brushed out with a wire or other stiff brush 3, having bristles of any desired material and of any desired length and degree of hardness, thus leaving depressions or valleys 4 of good depth and detail and the remainder of the surface in relief. By the degree of softening or etching and the degree of brushing, furthermore, the amount of depth to which the grain part of the fibre is to be removed may be readily controlled by the operator. For example, the material applied for softening the wood fibre may be, in the case of walnut, a solution of 33 parts by weight of zinc chloride in 100 parts by weight of water, which may be applied to the panel or molding for 8 hours.

After the softened parts of the wood have been brushed out in the manner above described. any excess of the softening material applied may be removed or neutralized so that any further etching action ceases. For example, where zinc chloride has been used a 3% strength by weight of caustic soda in water may be applied for a few minutes to neutralize the same, followed by washing in any desired way to remove the resultant materials. Also, if desired, it will be understood that the etching materials may be removed either by brushing with water or an organic liquiqd such as naphtha or turpentine, if desire It will be found that the above treatment has provided the wood with the desired degree of hardness without any necessity of applying a subsequent hardening treatment.

If desired, furthermore, I may apply a treatment to the negative for water-proofing the same so as to prevent warping and distortion, as. for example, by providing therein a metallic salt of a fatty acid, such as aluminum stearate, with a suitable binder, such as a resin or vegetable oil, or cellulose ester carried in a solvent such as benzol, zylol, naphtha, turpentine, petroleum, etc. Such a water-proofing composition might be, for example, comprised of 6 parts by weight of aluminum stearate, 2 parts by weight of colophony resin, and 100 parts by weight of ben- 201.

The graining plate is then mounted on a specially constructed bed, a pliable bed, such as a mixture of glue, gylcerine and formaldehyde, which acts in the double capacity of a cushion between the plate and the bed of sufficient resilience necessary for good reproduction and for the purpose of preventing the infiltration of moisture between the plate and the bed, so as to prevent warping and twisting.

Thereafter, the negative obtained as above may have ink 5 of any desired color applied to the surface of the same with the aid of an ink scraper, so as to fill the depressions present therein, and'a transfer roller 6 may be run over the surface so as to pick up the ink from the negative. Owing to the somewhat yielding character of the wood as compared with the metal negative, it will be found that the roller will pick up the design of the grain from the wood with the greatest faithfulness and detail. Thereupon the roller carrying the design of the grain in the ink, which has been received from the negative, may be applied to any surface provided for receiving the grain, as, for example, metal, paper, parchment, wood, "cement, plaster, etc.

In the above process it will be understood,

of course, that many other materials may be used instead of the materials mentioned above, and that the proportions of materials hereinabove mentioned may be varied widely, as desired, to suit the conditions applicable in the particular instance. For instance. instead of the zinc chloride I may use calcium chloride. For zinc chloride I may use any other neutralizing material, as, for example, ammonia. Likewise, instead of the aluminum stearate mentioned above any other fatty acid salt of a metal may be used. Many other resins may be used instead of the colophony resin above mentioned, and as the vegetable oil I may use, for example, linseed oil, China-wood oil, etc. The cellulose ester mentioned may be cellulose nitrate or acetate, etc. Finally, instead of the solvents mentioned I may use any other suitable solvent applicable to the purpose.

While I have described my invention above in detail I wish it to be understood that many changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the same.

I claim:

1. The process which comprises producing a printing surface by removing a part of the fibre from a walnut surface to place the grain in relief, by the application of zinc phloride and then printing from such surace.

2. The process which comprises producing a printing surface by removing a part of the fibre from a wooden surface of walnut to place the grain in relief, by applying zinc chloride as an etching material, then brushing out the softened grain followed by neutralization of the etchlng material, then adding a precipitant and subjecting the surface to a water-proofing treatment with a metallic stearate and a binder in liquid phase and then printing from such surface.

3. The process which comprises producing a printing surface by removing a part of the 10 fibre from a walnut surface to place the grain in relief, by the application of zinc chloride and then brushing out the softened grain to form cavities left by the brushed out portions of the wood, then filling these cavities with ink, and then printing from such surface.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my hand this 17 day of November, 1927.

JACOB K. SNYDER. 

